An Assessment of Professional Performance in Private Media Houses: A Case Study of Print Media Houses in Lusaka

Journalists play a critical role in the structure of modern societies and therefore the need to understand the environment in which they work must be given priority for the betterment of society. The main objective of this study is to assess professional performance in private media houses. This is a case study of print media houses in Lusaka. A target population is a large population from which a sample population is selected. The target population comprised of media practitioners and journalists from Lusaka’s print media houses. A total sample size of 50 was picked which comprised print media practitioners from Lusaka. The study involved collecting data using simple random sampling. Simple random sampling is the kind of sampling in which each element in the population has equal and non-zero chance/likelihood or probability of being picked. It expresses the idea of change being the only criterion of selection. Therefore, questionnaires were administered to respondents randomly. The instruments used in this study were questionnaires. A questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a set of questions (items) intended to capture responses from respondents in a standardized manner. The questionnaires used consist of series of both open ended which are also called unstructured and closed ended or structured questions. Questionnaires were administered to participants by hand. The questionnaires were administered to the participants randomly. On factors that promote professionalism for journalists in print media: 8% of respondents indicated good training, 4% indicated strong networks, 8% said strong media bodies while 80% stated need for personal censorship. Although Zambia has recorded exponential media growth from the early 1990s. Recommendations are that there is a need to promote media professionalism in most houses by as this will increases the propensity of the media in taking its roles a s a fourth estate; There is a need for journalist to foster and harness constant training so as to keep abreast on most new ground covered around media professionalism.